MIbassyaker

I have heard for years that fishing is bad in Indiana and Kansas. And then I see this kind of stuff by you two, and I don't know what to think.

Yup, that's what I use too.

Wind+Kayak = bad. Over 15mph, I stay home. Over 10mph, I may go if there are fishable places leeward, or at least away from open water where I can stay out of the worst of it. Otherwise, safety, comfort and free time are my only considerations.

My rules of thumb are mostly in line with @gimruis -- clear = natural, murky = bright. In water that is somehwere between the two, but stained, I like some constrasting highlights -- a little chartreuse in algae-stained water, and a little orange in brown-stained water. I also think flake colors are underappreciated, and may sometimes be a greater reason for a color preference than the base color. I think they may add some trigger potential on occasion, especially in cover where light penetrates inconsistently in a dappled manner.....a dark body slinking through the murk, suddenly flashes as the flakes catch a ray of sunlight.... I use junebug pretty often when pitching into vegetation, even in pretty clear water; not because of the grape base, but because of the green flakes.

Still not sure I want to go all the way down the BFS rabbit hole, but I was thinking it would be fun to have a light baitcaster for slinging around little moving baits in streams and ponds. Found this on AliExpress a few weeks ago and it arrived today -- Tsurinoya Dragon II C662L:

Not sure I would want to be known for that.?

It doesn't float, does it? If so, you could try a "Walk-The-(pterano)Don" retrieve...

Brief stop at a small dam tailwater. Little bit better one today, but just one: Another hooked up on a 3" grub but got off.

I remember seeing magazine ads for the "blackbird" Hula Popper when I was a kid:

Mepps spinners and Mister Twister curly tail grubs were the first artificial lures I learned how to use as a kid, and we caught everything with them. I still use them sometimes for river smallies.

yeah, it's not a super stealthy option despite being clear. it's another thing on top of the water that will splash down at least a little, and will move when you move the line, so I'm not sure how well it would work with a popper.

You can try putting an adjustable bubble float on the line a couple feet ahead of the fly. Typically a round or cylindrical clear plastic float you can add some water to give some weight, and they'll make it castable.

I'm sure I've had that spinner for 25 years or more. It has caught bigger fish.

I wanted to show off a big smallmouth, but I didn't catch any of those today. So here are a couple tiny ones instead:

I try a bunch of stuff to see what gets bit, and that's the one I choose. Not really. But sort of. I show up with educated guesses about the mood and location of fish, based on time of year, time of day & light conditions, current and recent weather, and other environmental information (water temperature, clarity, cover types, weedgrowth, forage species, competitor species). I use these guesses to select a handful of presentations to start with and rig up a few rods to switch between. I usually want at least one topwater, one mid-depth, and one bottom presentation, as well as some lures I can work horizontally some lures I can work vertically. As long as I have those bases covered, I'm usually confident I can at least get a strike by something, and when I do, I make finer adjustments from there. If I go for awhile with nothing, then I try something new. But the point is, other than initial selection of a few things to try, I don't really "choose" until I get more information from the fish, which I use as feedback to tell me what I should be doing more of, and what I should be doing less of.

I'm sure this depends on lots of other factors, but here the presence of above-average size pike (not just a bunch of little snot rockets) sure seems to be related to better largemouth sizes. The reason is probably that they eat enough young largemouth to prevent the population from becoming stunted. Stunting happens often especially in small waters when there is overabundance of small bass competing for food. If your pickerel are large enough to thin out the population of smaller bass, it may have a similar effect.

Just sayin'!

Berkley. But I would dearly miss my Yamamotos, Zooms, & Strike Kings.

Keep trying it, especially as we start getting into fall. Pond bass love a spinnerbait.

Hi from grand rapids -- I fish several sections of the Grand to the west of you.

"They're boring" --more boring than not catching fish? "There are better options" --Sometimes, sometimes not, surely. Like everything else. "They gut-hook fish" --One of the reasons I don't wacky rig very often. 90% of the time I'm using them on a weightless t-rig. "They're a crutch" --You can use other lures too! "Too Expensive" --Fair, but when I buy lures, I'm paying to have a chance of catching fish, and in my experience they provide that experience at a competitive rate. "Too soft/not durable/they come off to easily" --Fair, but check out @Choporoz's suggestion of owner twistlock hooks. "They don't require skill" --They require the same attention to casting location, depth, rate of fall, retrieve style/speed as most any other presentation. Spinnerbaits are arguably no more difficult to use. Cast, retrieve, repeat. "No intense hookset satisfaction" --Lol! Is there a worse reason to chose one lure over another? "don't want to be seen fishing the 'idiot-bait'" --OK, we have a contender for 'worse reason'...

3/0 here too.

I keep obsessive track of numbers and sizes, but the dink patrol was out in force today. I counted 22 of the little guys, and I know I missed a few, but not sure how many. They're hard to find in that lake!

Another morning trip, 6:30-10:30. ~60-acre natural lake, narrow shallows with lily pads & reeds, some docks, fast-dropping slope to deep water all the way around. But the shallow cover in this lake is mostly a trap, and rarely holds anything bigger than 11 or 12 inches outside of spring. The better bass are a few feet out along the drop, and about 10-12 feet deeper. A jigworm ("Perch" colored Mister Twister Phenom) and a GYCB hula grub were effective at coaxing up these three today (3.36#, 2.95#, 2.15# respectively), just above a 14' thermocline: ...along with around two-dozen 10-11 inchers (I lost track of exactly how many), which in the end couldn't really be avoided.